


Pirate King Luffy goes Back in Time

by FriendlyFrat_Boy



Category: One Piece
Genre: Crack, Dimension Travel, Gen, Hugs, Luffy Being Luffy, Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy, Reunions, Sort Of, Time Travel, pre-alabasta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26081638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendlyFrat_Boy/pseuds/FriendlyFrat_Boy
Summary: For twenty years, Luffy, now a Pirate King had drifted through the world, visiting old friends and doing the kind of things a king was supposed to. Was he happy? No, not at all. All his Nakama were long since dead, not spared the war of Raftel, not to even mention the people outside his own crew.The only reason he had gone on living was to honour their memory.And then, all of a sudden, he took a nap in a storm and woke up twenty years in the past aboard the Going Merry, headed for Alabasta.He has a lot of catching up to do.---Okay, so, for anybody who has read my other Pirate-King-Luffy-happens-into-trouble fic, this is pretty much that but he time travelled instead of dimension-hopping. Big difference. Otherwise, the two PK's are the same character, so if you enjoyed this, go read that one. The first chapter is a sucker-punch, but that's what we're all about in this hellhole of a fandom.Enjoy!
Comments: 29
Kudos: 144





	1. A nap through time

**Author's Note:**

> Man, coupled with my other similar work, I really feel like I'm just puttin' him through the wringer.

Luffy had no idea what was coming to him.

Not that he couldn’t see those ominously swarming clouds, no, he just didn’t care much. Despite how much his bounty went up, his opinion of his own value only went down. To him, disappearing into the ocean after all these years would be a pretty good way to go. A warrior’s death had been denied to him the second he became the undisputed “strongest man alive”.

But he wouldn’t let himself doubt it. Seeking death was a coward’s way to go, and after the sacrifices that had led him to this little rickety dinghy, hand-painted flag flying high and proud, he had no choice but to live. 

All he could do was drown out his thoughts. 

Eating, drinking, partying, fighting… There were so many ways to make his memories go away. The best part of all of this, the best part of being the King of the Pirates, was being able to travel the world, and refind old friends. Rekindle old friendships, brawl with old enemies… He no longer had any standards when it came to friendships. A king must be able to forgive, and forgive he did. 

Some people he couldn’t forgive, but he’d made sure they wouldn’t bother him anymore years ago. All he had left now was to survive. 

Live through it all. 

At the moment, Luffy was only barely looking at the sky. The sky had been bright and blue and cheerful only minutes ago, but now it was as black as the depths of the ocean. This was probably fine. The worst thing that could happen was that a whirlpool formed or something, but Luffy could evade that through well-practised use of moon-walking. Then again… he didn’t really care. 

So, instead of preparing for a horrible storm, he laid down on his back, placed his beloved treasure over his eyes, and went to sleep. If something went real bad, he’d wake up, so it was fine. 

\-----

“Everybody to your stations, we’ve got a storm coming!” Nami cried out to the gathered members of the Straw Hat Pirates, as well as a princess far from home and her pet duck. The ones not raised in a castle quickly got to work, lowering the sails and getting to their posts to complete further missions. 

Nobody questioned her assessment, even though the skies were clear. If Nami said gold was going to rain from the skies, you bet your behind that they would grab pouches to collect the gold in. 

Even so, despite how assured she may have sounded just now, deep down, she felt far more unsure than one might think. 

Something here was wrong. She could tell a storm was brewing. All the signs were there, but even so, there wasn’t an actual cloud around for miles. 

Nothing. 

Silence reigned over the deck.

“Um, is this how storms usually form-?” Chopper, the newest recruit, asked timidly, his mild manner and childish voice clashing with his burly body. 

“Yeah, Nami, are you sure about this?” Usopp asked as well, tying a rope to the deck of the Merry. Nami nodded, but she was just as unsure as they were. Vivi and Karoo were observing the whole situation, both of them too confused to actually do anything.

“I-,” 

KRKL

Nami was about to say something, but the crackle of thundering lightning cut her off before she was able to say anything. 

Lightning. Without a cloud to be seen. 

What in the world-,

And then the skies turned black. They simply darkened, blotting out the sun and turning the day into night without any actual warning. The gathered members aboard the caravan became silent in an instance, the tone shifting. 

The only thing lighting up the seas now were the crackling lightning flying about above, always accompanied by thunder. 

Clouds swirled, rain began to fall, and the wind started picking up, turning the rain into a smattering whipping Skyfall, crashing into the Merry and the people she carried with such force that Nami briefly wondered if they’ll be thrown clean off. With yet another devil-fruit user aboard, keeping everybody not-drowned may suddenly be harder than before. 

Lightning began raining down with similar ferocity to the rain itself, thankfully only hitting the sea itself. 

And then, there was a short pause, one where the lightning stopped crackling and the rain stopped falling. Just a brief interlude. Nami didn’t know what it meant. 

It started collecting. Lightning coalesced, the thunder became deafening, and Nami wondered if they’d be defeated by mother nature, of all things. 

It struck. 

A massive, white, blinding pillar of pure fire and divine judgement. 

But it didn’t hit the Merry. It struck a fair bit in the distance, and then it was gone, along with the storm that had brought it. Everything just… disappeared. The sun peeked back down, the blue skies returned, and that was that. The grand line. Bastard of a place. 

“I-, is the weather always like this-?...” Chopper asked, long since having reverted to his small, cute form. 

“Nope!” Luffy said from the other side of the deck, smiling brightly while holding his straw hat, just in case the wind picked back up again. “Alright, back to business everyone!”

With all that said and done, the crew got back to raising the sail, after all, they had a kingdom to rescue. It was up there, standing right above the now-fastened sail, that Usopp caught a glance of something odd. There in the distance, not too far away from the Merry, was a small row-boat, or a dinghy. Flying a black flag. 

There didn’t seem to be anybody in it, but…

Usopp fished a collapsible telescope from his overalls and took a peek out over the ocean. 

“See anything strange, Usopp?” Sanji asked, fastening his part of the sail.

“There’s a boat out there, it’s…” as Usopp saw a bit closer, just a bit more of the flag, he suddenly grew pale, “I-,, I think somebody might be flying our flag-??” Sanji frowned and walked over to where Usopp stood, balancing carefully on the pole between them. From where Usopp stood, he could indeed see a rowboat, right there on the horizon. 

“They’re what-?” Sanji asked, but instead of getting an answer from Usopp, he simply received the spyglass to take a peek himself. And, well… it was their flag alright. A black flag with a white skull and a yellow straw hat. “...We should probably tell somebody, right?”

“Hey! Luffy!” Usopp called out to their captain who was stumbling about down on deck, playing with Caroo. 

“Hm? What’s up?” 

“There’s a rowboat over there! They’re, uh, well they’re flying our flag. What should we do?” 

“They’re what-? Why I’ll-! Everybody, steer towards the boat!” Luffy ordered, prompting Zoro to go into the cabin to manually turn the Merry towards the boat. After a few minutes, they arrived at the boat. As it turns out, both Sanji and Usopp had seen it right: the flag was theirs. 

Usopp glanced between the flag that hung above their crow’s nest and back at the flag on the dinghy. They were eerily similar. The only really noticeable difference was that the flag on the dinghy, against all odds, seemed… older. Some edges were frayed, a few seams were coming loose, the paint was almost peeling in certain parts, but it had been fixed, that much was clear. Patched and raggedy, it was clearly loved.

Usopp chose not to think about it too much.

Now that the small boat was close enough to fasten it to the Merry, it was also clear that it was, as a matter of fact, occupied. Someone was sleeping in it. 

The man’s face was covered by a straw-hat that Usopp found just a bit too similar to the one his captain owned, but even so, he could make out some details. His chin was covered in a fair sprinkling of stubble, and his head was covered in a large tuft of raven hair. Hrm. 

The rest of his body was of the muscular kind, heavily scarred chest exposed by a white cardigan. Other than that, he was wearing a pair of black shorts, a red satchel and a red and gold cape-coat combo. Weird. You’d usually only see a shoulder-cape like that on high-ranking marines…

“Hey! Wake up, buster!” Usopp called out to the sleeping menace but received no answer save for snores. 

“Man, what a rude guy!” Luffy said, crossing his arms. “Let’s get him on deck!”

“Why would we-,”

“Usopp, you heard the captain. You grab the legs,” Zoro said, hopping down from the deck and onto the Dinghy. Usopp grumbled, but followed along anyway. It was just a guy, he could handle that. Unlike Zoro, Usopp chose to get into the dinghy by way of the rope ladder, the far more sensible option, according to himself.

Zoro grabbed the man’s shoulders, and Usopp went for the legs. 

Whoa-, heavy! He hadn’t expected that one. Tall, too, taller than Usopp thought from that distance. 

Either way, after a few minutes of heaving and pushing and pulling, they had him up on deck, lying on his back, that straw-hat still on his face. 

“-Hm? Luffy, isn’t that your straw hat?” Nami asked, turning to Luffy. 

“Huh? No? It’s right here on my head!” Luffy replied, patting the hat on his head. And, to be sure, there it was. Then again, the two hats were eerily similar. Almost too similar. If she looked really close, she could only barely make out three familiar patched-up lines on the very top of the sleeping man’s hat…

“Hey, Luffy, could I take a look at your hat-?” Nami asked, reaching out her hand. Luffy grumbled but quickly relented. He knew he could trust her with his treasure. 

She inspected it closely. The only obvious damage to Luffy’s hat were the three holes that Buggy had made, and this was the large difference between his and the man’s. The hat covering his snoring face was, in a word: old. Slightly bleached by the sun, covered by innumerable small, patched holes. 

This was… odd. The flag, the hat, the man-,

“Hey, guys! There’s something down here!” Zoro called out from his place in the dinghy. Nami went over to the railing, and, well, there was certainly something down there. A golden chest, dull and cloudy in colour, but clearly made of real gold. Zoro tried to lift it, but after an unsuccessful attempt where he dropped it (and it cracked a board in the dinghy), he readjusted and lifted it in an ergonomically sound way. “I’m gonna throw it, catch it Luffy!”

“-Right! Toss the booty!” Luffy replied, already grinning as he spread his arms and legs in preparation. 

“Hupp!” Zoro grunted and hurled the chest into the air.

Just going by the way it flew like an unwilling whale, Nami could tell it was damn heavy. But that didn’t bother Luffy. If anything, it just made him even more curious, and he caught the thing in his open arms, only to fall back and have the chest squash his chest into a crushed rubbery mound like an anvil on a yoga-ball. “H-, help!” Luffy called out, and although both Chopper and Usopp tried to get the thing off of his chest, they both failed. Zoro soon joined the rest of the crew on deck, and the very first thing he did was to help Luffy get the chest off of his, well, chest. 

“Even if there’s nothing inside, this’ll get us a few million beli easily!” Nami swooned, fluttering up to the chest, her eyes somehow having transformed into the classic B’s. She then proceeded to grab both sides of the lid, only to realize it was far too heavy for her too open. Her eyes teared up. “Mnnn, Luffy~!”

“Shishishi! Will do!” Luffy said with a smile, strolling up to the chest, excitement coursing through him like static.

The second he placed his hands on the lid, all hopes were squashed. 

It was locked.

“We should probably check the owner for a key. Should’ve done that first,” Sanji said, taking a puff of his cigarette.

“I-, I’m not taking a step closer to him!” Chopper said, suddenly being the coward of the bunch. 

“Hehehehe, scared of a bum~?” Usopp teased, kind of proud that he dared lift it himself. Chopper shook his head in denial but made no other attempt to shrug off his cowardice.

It got quiet for a moment, a rare occurrence on this very ship, until…

“-I’ll do it.” Nami was already closest, so it almost made sense that she’d give herself up to the chopping block. Not that there was anything to be afraid of. It was just some hobo, flying by the seat of his pants, floating on the seas without a care in the world! 

Then again, who the hell could survive in a rowboat on the Grand Line? 

She crouched down. Here on closer inspection, she realized not only were his clothes tattered and old, but they also stunk to high hell. Nami almost didn’t want to get any closer, but everybody was looking at her, and she didn’t have much of a choice. So, she reached out, her hand trembling, knitting her brows, her palm hovered over the straw hat, preparing to grab it, toss it aside, unmask the non-threat…

She grabbed the hat. It felt coarse in her hand, rough seams interjecting with straw.

She raised it from its place on his face.

And then, she was grabbed.


	2. he's back, guys, he's back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shenanigans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all, this is a bad idea. Like, seriously, do you realize how many fics I've got on the backburner?? I'm going to diE
> 
> but uh yeah coMMent

Her whole body jolted as if a live electric wire had been shoved into her bare hand, but even so, even when jerking her hand back with all her might, she couldn't get loose.

The hand gripped her wrist like an iron vice, keeping her reluctant body in place. She was still holding the hat, but she wished she wasn't. Heart beating out of her chest, she saw how the man raised his arm, surely to strike her. A pirate she may be, but she was still only a weak girl. This man was anything but that.

His muscles tensed up, iron coils ready to spring at any moment, moving slowly but surely, taking the time to fulfil the movement. No hurries. A mark of confidence.

He reached over, missing her face, and instead landing on his straw hat, the straw hat she was still unhappily grabbing. His fingers took hold of the edges, and in the same moment, Nami let go of it, entirely unwilling to hold it at the same time as he was. Her breath felt ragged and dry in her throat.

He took the hat off his face and placed it on his head, simultaneously rising into a sitting position.

"Got some gall, disturbing the sleep of a king."

Rough. That was the word she'd use to describe just his face alone. Judging by the stubble on his chin, he hadn't shaved for a few months at the very least. His voice was… Somehow, it felt familiar. But deeper. Gruff, gravelly, years of drinking had clearly burnt away at his vocal cords, but it did nothing to curb the smooth, fatal edge of it.

There was danger in those eyes, those black eyes that peered into hers like a hawk glares at a rabbit.

"-Hm?"

And then it was gone. Hawk-eyes replaced by… confusion.

He squinted. Leaned in closer to her paralyzed form.

"...Aha," he said, glancing about the ship, his gaze hopping from straw-hat to straw-hat until it finally fell on Vivi. He scratched his chin, "-hum. Never seen that before."

"S-s-s-seen what?" Usopp asked, his feet wobbling like overcooked linguini doing the polka. At some point, Chopper had run off to hide behind Usopp and was now peeking out from behind it, but even so, Chopper nodded in agreement.

"Oh, uh, never seen Vivi be a part of my dreams! Shishishi!"

That laugh. That whole-faced grin. There wasn't a single person aboard that ship who didn't recognize it. The face was different, the body too, but… The scar under his eye, the raven hair, the straw hat…

"L-, Luffy…?" Nami breathed from where she sat in front of the man.

He turned to her, gave a conflicted smile, and scratched his head. "-Sorry I glared at you, dream-Nami. You know how I get when people touch my treasure." He bowed his head deeply before rising to stand up fully. And, man, he was tall. Maybe Usopp should have noticed it earlier when they hauled him aboard, but this guy (Luffy?) was easily above 190. It might even be more. "-Right, so… when do we get to Raftel?"

"""..."""

Silence passed while the assorted pirates and princess(+duck) exchanged glances.

"-Hey!" Luffy said, taking a step towards the tall stranger aboard. "You can't be Luffy, I'M Luffy!"

"Huh? Nuh-uh, I'm Luffy! And I've got the hat to prove it!" the man said, presenting his tattered and sunbleached hat.

"Oh yeah? Well so do I!" Luffy said, presenting his own, much newer-looking hat for comparison.

"Gack! You do have a hat!" the man hit his closed fist on his open palm, stumped by the flawless logic on display. "Aha! Hold on a second!" with that eureka-moment, the man suddenly dived for his red coat, digging through the pockets until he grabbed a rolled-up piece of parchment. "-Behold!"

With that, he unrolled the piece of paper, revealing a wanted poster. It seemed old, yellow and dusty. The paper said "WANTED: Dead or Alive, Straw-Hat Luffy - 30 000 000 beli" above a picture of a young boy with his hand over the camera and a man with his back to the frame in the background.

"Hmmmm…" Luffy leaner closer, aligning his face with the picture. "Hey!" Luffy suddenly did a switcheroo, grabbing the poster out of the man's hand to hold it up himself, "this is me!"

"Is it?" the man asked, squinting at the picture for a second before lighting up in realization and despair. "It is!"

"Told ya I'm the real Luffy!"

"Damn! You got m-, no, wait, that's the wrong poster, hold on," with that, the man continued digging through his all-too-many pockets, finally fishing out yet another tube of paper, this one white and crisp. He didn't even bother to present it, going straight to unrolling it and presenting it to Luffy (and everyone else on deck as well) with a proud, smug smirk.

It was him alright. On a wanted-poster. Where he was named…

Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy.

The bounty itself was even more preposterous.

"-Holy shit," Sanji put it eloquently, dropping his cigarette to the deck.

13 000 000 000. Thirteen billion belis.

"Eh? What's wrong, guys?" Chopper asked innocently, his lack of economic education finally getting the better of him. At that moment, he received a glare from more than three of his new crewmates.

It couldn't be a real poster. It had to be a fake, but… then again, it did have the real insignia of the Marines. And a real man behind it.

"Hmmm… Okay, so, you're Luffy. And I'm Luffy."

"Yup! The only difference is that this is my dream," the man said without the slightest twinge of irony or disbelief. Luffy frowned, folding his arms.

"-No it isn't?"

"Yes it is. No way this is real, heh."

"Hmm, maybe so, but, if so… then it's MY dream!"

Aaaand Luffy was off again. "No way! I woke up first!"

"Oh yeah? Well I-,"

Nami physically stepped between the bickering pair, "guys, guys, guys, stop that! Cool off, will you?!"

""Yes Nami,"" the two said in unison, hanging their heads in silent respect. Taking her chance, Nami swiped both wanted posters from the two, holding them up to examine.

"...It's real," a collective gasp went through the crowd, "I can tell. With how old this poster is, I wouldn't be surprised if it was printed, oh, twenty years ago? The ink, too." She gave both a quick sniff, recoiled, and mumbled something about how they smelled about right.

Usopp took a step towards Nami, "hey, Nami, you can't seriously-,"

"I can, and I do. This is a real poster, this is a real man wearing a real straw hat, and I'd say we're dealing with…"

"-You don't mean -?" Usopp mumbled, his brows furrowed about as far as they could go. Behind Nami, the two Luffy's(Luffies? Luffeys?) were playing rock-paper-scissors.

"...A time traveller. Maybe." Nami rolled both posters back up and handed them to a surprised (older) Luffy. She gave him a look. "-Are you a time traveller-?"

"Well, considering that I just lost, I'd say we are actually inside Luffy's dream right now," the older Luffy said, crossing his arms and nodding solemnly while Luffy partied in the back, grinning like a madman before throwing himself into the sea for a quick dip.

Wait…

"""Luffy!"""

A chorus of worried voices rang out, and everyone on deck, bar none, jumped into the water to go to the rescue. In the end, they all surfaced with not one, not two, but THREE nearly drowned pirates. There were a fair few unhappy grumblers, but in the end, they did get everyone back up on deck.

"-Okay, so, not a dream, then?"

"-Of course it's not a dream!"

The older Luffy was quickly met with a fist to the back of the head, but he didn't respond to it. He was the first one to sit up among the devil-fruit eaters, doing so without hesitation or discomfort. Clearly used to both being drowned and being rescued.

"...This is real?" As if he had to ask. Which he did.

Nami nodded. "Yes. If all this is anything to go by…" she stepped closer to the older Luffy and tugged at his cheek, feeling it stretch further than humanly possible, "-you time travelled. You're from the future."

As soon as she let go of his cheek it snapped back into place, leaving its owner blank-faced and dazed.

"I… I'm back…?"

Nami almost nodded, but he answered his own question first:

"I'm back!" he cheered, his face lighting up in an inhumanly big grin of pure, sheer joy. Nami only had time to stumble back a bit before he practically threw himself at her, muscular arms wrapping around her midsection and lifting her into the air for a true full-body hug.

And, god, he was strong. Life choked out of her, she gasped, barely able to even understand what was happening.

"I'm back, I'm back!" Luffy chanted happily, his grin only growing larger with each repetition.

"L-, Luffy-,, that's a bit tight, will you-" And then she felt something on her shoulder. He'd lifted her so far up in the air that they were pretty much face-to-face, but that isn't what she noticed. No, sometime during his joyous shouting, he'd burrowed his face in the nape of her neck, his short stubble scratching at her exposed skin rather uncomfortably.

But that isn't what she noticed either.

Her shoulder was wet. His gleeful shouts had turned to muffled sobs, still mumbling about how he was 'back', his broad back shaking and heaving with the effort of breathing despite how much he wanted to cry.

How could she possibly react to this with anything but pity?

This whole situation was absurd, time-travel and old Luffys and dreams and… and this. Maybe she should have realized it sooner. The way it all fit together. He was alone, wasn't he? Pirate King this and Pirate King that, did she really think he could fit anyone but himself in that little dinghy? He may have been flying the flag of their crew, of his crew, but… he was alone.

Until now.

She let her hands slide across his back, that broad, tense back of his, and slowly, softly returned his hug. He trembled under her touch, as if he didn't expect her to still exist.

"There, there, everything's okay," she mumbled back.

After a few moments, he let her back down, a serene, calm smile on his face, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes.

"...I'm back."


	3. Hugs all around

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why m I writing this aa aa a a a

“Um, Luffy?”

Usopp could barely catch a glimpse of the look he got before he was violently assaulted, two rubbery arms and legs twisting around him, going around his chest and arms and legs several times like a boa constrictor. Except it was a hug, not a choking, although it felt more like his body was being crushed than platonically embraced. 

Usopp choked for a moment, stumbled, feeling the entire weight of the robbery idiot wrapped around him, and immediately fell to the ground, unable to keep his balance with the added weight of far more than his body could handle. “L-, Luffy-,,” he choked out, but it didn’t help. He couldn’t tell where anything was, just that he might as well have been wrapped in a giant, tight rubber-band. 

He was pretty sure he could hear Luffy laughing right in his ear, but he couldn’t tell.

“-Hey, let go of him!” Sanji warned, a rather normal response considering that a man they previously didn’t know had just “attacked” Usopp. When Luffy didn’t respond to the warning, Sanji did the one thing that usually worked when dealing with idiots: a swift kick to the nearest limb. 

So, he sent both Luffy and his unwilling hug-buddy flying with a swift kick. They bounced around on deck for a moment before they came to a soft stop, Luffy’s rubbery body actually acting as defence for once. “HAHAHAAHHAAHH!” Luffy laughed loudly as he came to a stop on deck, letting his body disconnect from Usopp and snap back into normal form to lie on his back, a dizzy, groaning Usopp spread eagle on top of him. 

Sanji stepped over to stand above the two. “You bastard, the hell are you-,”

And then Luffy noticed that Sanji existed as well. Unlike Usopp, Sanji was both attentive and fast enough to dodge the first assault, feeling the larger man fly past, skidding to a stop not far behind him. Sanji turned around, frowning at the assault, preparing to attack back, when…

Luffy grinned. A competitive flash flickered through his eyes, and Sanji could see nothing more, because all of a sudden, he was on the ground, pinned by Luffy, wearing a half-moon grin that said more than words ever could. He hadn’t even seen him move. “-You,,” And then he was drawn into a big, warm bear-hug. 

‘Get-off-me-!’ -is what Sanji wanted to say, but he couldn’t. Not just because his chest was crushed to such an extent that even trying to say something wouldn’t work, but also because, well… It was a very warm hug. The kind where you just had to let the hugger hug it all out. 

“Hey.” And then Zoro spoiled the fun. 

His unsheathed sword was almost stabbing into the back of Luffy’s head. Luffy didn’t seem to mind it. Zoro scowled. None of this made any sense, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to trust some random weirdo that just happened to hop on board. Devil Fruit powers and evidence aside, he could just tell this wasn’t Luffy. At least, not quite. And that little difference made Zoro’s instincts scream. Those finely honed instincts told him that this person was dangerous. More dangerous than anything he had ever faced.

More dangerous than Mihawk. 

Luffy slowly rose from where he’d been hugging Sanji. Turned his head slightly. Gave him a glance, eyes shaded slightly by that worn hat. Those eyes, the eyes of a tiger, lit up in joy and warmth and love. 

Unlike Sanji, Zoro couldn’t even dodge the first strike. 

One moment he was standing, feet planted securely on the ground, and the next, he was lifted into the air, a pair of powerful arms wrapped around his midsection. In his surprise, he almost dropped Wado Ichimonji, but he was able to keep a grip on it, both literally and figuratively. Somehow, while Zoro focused on not dropping his sword, not only had he been heaved far too high into the air than he was comfortable with, but he also had the face of a seeming stranger pressed into his chest. What the fuck.

If the way Luffy was grinning at him like he was the world didn’t make him stop struggling, it was the fact that he realized mid-struggle that he couldn’t have moved if he’d wanted to. 

“Zorooooo~!” Luffy chimed happily, grinning like the absolute fool he was. 

“Let me down, damn you!” Zoro growled back, about one more second from just going all in and biting Luffy’s head. Not that it would work. 

Luffy chortled. “Hehehhe, just you try it!” 

As much as Zoro wanted to prove that idiotic rubberman wrong, he felt all too clearly how this was simply not a possibility. The second he so much as tried to flex his arms to break loose, they met strong opposition, to such an extent that he simply couldn’t move. He had been captured. By a grinning lunatic. 

Zoro scoffed at his own weakness. “Alright. Whatever. You win, let me down.” 

Luffy squinted for a moment, his grip loosening until his eyes suddenly flared open, bringing with it a tightening of his arms. Zoro gasped unwillingly. “-Only if you say the magic word.” Saying so, he smirked cooly, as if that’s what he’d been planning all along, when he clearly made it up on the fly.

“The what,” Zoro asked, face twisting into a grimace of indignation. 

“Magic word. Mystery word. You gotta say it!” 

Luffy’s eyes were glittering, and Zoro didn’t have a single idea why the fuck this was happening to him. He should’ve just stayed in bed. Maybe he should just stab his way out of there? Then again, Luffy did seem pretty strong, so… “-Uh, ‘please’?”

Luffy shook his head. Nope, incorrect magic word. Try again or get choked.

Usopp, who had finally regained his senses, sneaked up close enough to give a hint or two. “Pssstt, Zoro! Try ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!’” 

“I. Am not. Saying that,” Zoro said, glaring daggers into Usopp. Sword it was. “Luffy, if you don’t let me down, I’ll-,”

And then he was let down. He stumbled for a second or so, regaining his footing until he finally looked back up at Luffy, who beamed at him. “-You said my name!” he said happily.

And then he paused for a moment, face twisted into ill-hidden confusion. “...I missed someone.” With that ominous comment, he let his eyes wander the deck, taking in Sanji and Usopp and Zoro and Nami and himself and Vivi and Karoo and… He wasn’t here! Luffy could swear he’d seen him before, so where was he? According to all details, they should have just left Drum island, meaning that Chopper is still a bit shy…

Luffy let out a pulse of haki, only barely containing a sob when he felt the lively presences of his Nakama all around him. Alive. Here. 

But there was one he couldn’t feel, one just on the tip of his tongue. He didn’t really use observation haki often since it made fights so easy, but… -there! Hidden behind a little barrell, peeking out in that full-body way that Luffy loved so dearly. 

He turned to Chopper. “Eek!” Too slow. Luffy was upon him in a matter of moments, hands and fingers instantly poking into Chopper’s furry tummy, where they quickly got to work tickling the hell out of him. “GYAAAAA S-, stOP that hhgheheheheheheheheh!” Chopper cried ineffectually, trying futilly to get Luffy off of him, but it just didn’t work. All he could do was laugh and giggle, hoping the rubbery tickle-demon would stop before he asphyxiated to death.

“Uh, not to butt in on anything, but… Luffy?”

Two Luffys looked over at Usopp. “”Yeah, wassup?””

Usopp glanced at the other crewmembers aboard. “Okay, that’s gonna get confusing, uh. Before we freak out, maybe we should just hand out some nicknames?” 

“That… isn’t a terrible idea,” Nami said, walking a bit closer to where her time-travelling captain was still tickling Chopper. It was odd, right? How tall he was? People don’t just grow and extra two, three feet when they get older, do they-? Well, the world was an odd place. “Older Luffy, what should we call you?”

He scratched his chin and stopped tickling Chopper, finally letting him breathe. “Hmmm… You can just call me King? Everybody else does, shishishi!” Hearing such a childish laugh combined with such a non-childish face was… a bit jarring. 

“No fair!” Luffy crossed his arms rebelliously, “I wanna be called King!”

King smirked. “Yeah, but has the World Government recognized you as King?” 

Luffy pouted, puffing up his cheeks like a hamster. 

“H-, hold on.” Usopp stepped forward, trembling oddly as if a certain realization had finally soaked in truly and fully. “Luffy-, no, King, you… you’re seriously the Pirate King??” 

King unfurled his wanted poster again. Chopper scuttled away, a fierce blush assaulting his cheeks. “-Yup, says so right there.” He pointed at the “Pirate King” part, nodding as if it was the most obvious fact in the world. Then again, in the future, that might just be one of the most obvious facts there was. That Monkey D. Luffy was the King of Pirates.

“I, uh, quick question. How the hell can you have a bounty of thirteen billion?” Usopp continued. Luffy’s bounty, an impressive thirty million barely stood so much as a chance beside such an amount. Could Usopp even think of a single bounty he knew that was higher? Could he even think of a single thing that was worth that much, beyond the One Piece itself?

Wait. Hold up. Luffy here was the Pirate King. To become the Pirate King you had to go to Raftel. 

Usopp glanced suspiciously at the locked golden chest, and swallowed.

“I think it might be cuz I kind of busted all the emperors? Like, Kaido and Blackbeard are gone and all and Shanks and Big Mom are still around, but they aren’t exactly pirates, so I guess the World Government just had enough money to put it all on me? I’ve also been on the throne for like 18 years now, so there might be something with that, too…” King hypothesized, furrowing his brows in thought. 

Sanji raised his hand. “-Who the hell are they?” 

He was met with a blank look from King. “Oh, right, this is before… Anyways, they’re like the four strongest people in the world? Well, they were. Or… are? Welp, doesn’t really matter, I could handle any one of ‘em!” King said triumphantly, balling his fists. 

Zoro cocked an eyebrow. “So, you’re strong?” 

“Yup!” King said, grinning. But his grin faltered at the edges, a slight flush overtaking his features. He scratched his stubbled chin. “-Though, hearing you say that is sort of…” he shook his head, “I have no idea how to feel about it!”

Something here felt off. Sanji could tell something was very wrong here, something about Lu-, no, King that was very different from their own Luffy. Somehow, he could tell that the future had taken a toll on him. In the way he moved, that lax, all-confident stride that trembled at the edges, in the way that he spoke, so loud and bombastic that you couldn’t hear his voice quiver, in his grin that only faltered when no one looked. 

“-How come you’re alone, King? Didja fall into the lifeboat and take a nap while the Merry drifted off? Shishishi!” Luffy, of all people, asked, about as tactlessly as possible. 

Nami’s breath hitched and she turned pale. King himself had much the same reaction. Nami could see the way his body tensed up, face frozen in a stiff smile. 

“Y-, you don’t have to say, King, it’s fi-,” 

“No, it… I guess I should have prepared myself for this,” King interrupted, prompting Nami to silence. He chuckled dryly. “I just never thought I’d have to say it to your faces.”

Luffy frowned. “Say what?”

“-Remember when I still thought this was a dream? And I asked when we were getting to Raftel? In most of my nightmares when I wake up on the Merry, that’s the next stop. Head over to Raftel.” A look was exchanged between the gathered members. “Funny thing, I’ve only ever been there once. There was a… a war, I guess. It felt more like a slaughter. There was Blackbeard with all his convicts and crew. There was Akainu, too. He brought an army.”

Only he knew who any of these were, but that wasn’t important. 

“-Three days and three nights. I didn’t think I’d survive after the moon went down on the first night. By the second night, I would’ve punched Ace if he’d been in front of me. And then, on the third night, when the sun went up, I was alone. All alone.”

A pause passed silently on deck.

“I thought about ending it right then and there. Didn’t have anything to live for, after all. You all were-,” he looked up, his distant, hazy eyes passing over the people he considered closer than family, and he choked out the final word, “-dead. Gone. Finding all your corpses took the whole night. But I didn’t die. No, I didn’t let myself die. I lived, because if I didn’t, you would have all died for nothing, and… and I’m glad I lived.” 

He smiled at them. A warm, true smile that told them everything they had to know. Everything he had lived through. 

Another moment of silence passed through the group. A moment of silence for the lives lost. A moment of silence for Luffy, who had lost so much. 

Slowly, surely, Nami stepped closer to him. Her eyes were large and wet. He stared down at her as she approached. Looked at her as if she was an illusion. 

And then, she hugged him. Wrapped her arms around his midsection. 

Usopp followed, embracing their future Captain with little prejudice. 

Sanji joined in, and then Zoro. Chopper came out of hiding and wrapped himself around King’s leg.

Vivi and Karoo joined in as well. 

In the end, even Luffy himself hugged King. 

All together, they listened to how King slowly broke down into snivelling sobs before finally giving a broken, soul-wrenching howl of pure pain and sorrow, weeping for the life he had led. Weeping for the lives he had lost.


	4. A banquet for the Pirate King and his crew!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is a Mr Pickles reference in this chapter

Chapter 4

“-LET’S HAVE A BANQUET!” King suddenly called out, emerging from the collected people on deck like a butterfly from a pupa. His face was bright and joyous, ready to put all sorrows behind and fully embrace this new life. This was a new chance to make everything right! To right his wrongs and make sure everything goes well!

A chorus of affirmation rang out, and the resident cook sneaked off to the kitchen while Nami tried to pry answers out of King, especially in regards to his little chest. “What’s in it? Do you have the key? How much could you sell it for??”

“Hey, I’m not selling it!” King replied, walking over to where his chest sat on deck. It wasn’t shiny or anything, but it was enough. “It’s all I’ve got.” A beat passed before his eyes lit up in realization, closely followed by joy. “-Or, it was all I used to have. Now…” he let his eyes fall on his crew. “-Now, I’ve got way more than this.”

Nami rubbed her hands together, a shrewd grin on her face. “Then, you wouldn’t mind parting with it, would y-,”

“Absolutely not.” The way he said it, with such clear resolve and conviction shut her up. There was a threat in it, hidden beneath his dark eyes. 

Nami’s jaw snapped shut. 

And in a moment, King realized the weight of his words. “I, um, it means a lot to me. I’d rather not lose it.” He scratched his cheek. “Sorry if I sounded harsh.”

“No, it’s okay, I was-,”

Sanji slammed the door to the kitchen, heaved a sigh, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, listen up, we’ve got a problem. Lu-, King, I’ll assume you’ve got the same appetite as our current captain, right?” King nodded hesitantly. “-Yeah, so, to put it simply, we’re out of food. It’s not like we could stock up at Drum Island, and since Luffy’s stomach is already a black hole…”

Vivi gasped. “Are we going to starve?”

Although Nami ferociously denied it, King could actually remember running out of food right before they got to Alabasta… Damn, he’s glad they didn’t eat Chopper. It was a close one though, and by all means, this might just be a close one as well. That is, if he himself hadn’t been on deck. “Observe.”

Saying so, he walked over to the railing, and reached out his right arm above the ocean. Half a dozen curious glances turned to him as he let his arm relax fully. Years past, relaxing his arm like this wouldn’t have done anything apart from making it more stretchy than it already was, but after awakening his devil fruit all those years ago…

His arm simply fell into the ocean. It almost seemed like there was a magnetic attraction involved, but not so. His arm had simply become so loose that it dropped into the ocean without any resistance.

The way his crew looked at him made him realize that this might not have been the most obvious thing to do. Well, that was alright. 

Well in the ocean, his arm continued falling, further and further down until King arbitrarily decided that enough was enough. 

“King, what the hell are you-,” Usopp started, but before he could finish his sentence, something happened. There was a heavy thrashing below deck, waves stirring on the surface, and there was a sudden tension in King’s arm. Had he-, had he used his arm as bait?...

King grinned, took a stance, and tensed his arm back up. Reeled it in. A second went by, another one, and then…

A sea king burst out of the ocean, large as a warship, flying into the air as if untethered. In its mouth, if one looked closely, one could almost see a rubbery arm sticking out of it. “-Got it!” King said as he turned his body around to face the airborne sea-king. Although one of his arms was in the maw of the beast, the other was not. He drew back this arm, grinned, and sent a punch flying. 

The rubbery projectile flew at the sea-king and socked it straight in the face. The mouth floundered open, releasing its grip on King’s arm, but that clearly wasn’t all. A single look at the sea-king told the whole story. It was dead. Dead as dust. A single hit from the pirate king and it was out like a light. 

With this done, the sea-king crashed back into the sea, forcing waves to fly and crash into the Merry while King laughed whole-heartedly. 

After a few seconds, the sea stilled. The sea-king bobbed beside the Merry, ripe for butchering. 

“-There we go!” King said with a large grin, putting his hands on his hips. 

Not one person on deck had their mouth closed. They’d seen Luffy fight sea-kings before, but not like this. Not such a thorough defeat. “...Holy shit,” Usopp breathed, voicing the thoughts of all members on deck. 

Zoro stepped forwards, gaping mouth replaced by a trembling grin. “Need some help cutting it up?”

For a moment, King didn’t respond. All he did was stare at Zoro, eyes glittering. “Oh! Yes! Of course!”

“W-, wait, you two!” Chopper intervened, tugging worriedly on Zoro’s pant-leg before he could hop off the railing and onto the sea-king. Zoro turned back, looked at Chopper, and let him say thing by giving him an affirming nod. “W-, well, I just think we should check if it’s edible before we go eating it. If that’s okay?”

Zoro, although he personally trusted the little doctor’s judgement, turned to King. “Hm?” King looked at Chopper, who in turn hopped over to hide behind Zoro with a little whimper. King’s eyes softened and a fond smile painted his lips. “Of course. Doing something stupid without getting an okay from you would be even stupider, shishishshi!”

Chopper nodded nervously and turned to Sanji. “Um, Sanji, do you have a book on poisonous fish?”

“Huh? Yes, of course, I’ll bring it in a moment.” With that said, Sanji returned to the kitchen only to emerge a minute later, holding a book labeled “Feesh”. Fearlessly, he tossed it over to Chopper, who caught it by going into his human form. With the book in hand, he wasted no time to flip it open and find the registry of known sea-kings and their toxicity. 

Chopper glanced up at King. “...It’s deadly.” Everyone except Zoro and King reacted. Chopper read a little bit more of the book, quickly turning pale. “-Even a single bite is enough to kill a West Blue Mountain Whale!” He turned to King. “K-, King, are you-?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, I’m okay, don’t worry!” he said, waving his hand dismissively. 

“LIKE HELL I WON’T WORRY!” Chopper roared before quickly clasping his hooves over his mouth. He hadn’t fully gotten over his fear of the tall man, and shouting at him like that might just have gone too far. Anxiously, he glanced up, looking for a response in King.

He seemed… surprised. Eyes wide, he stared back at Chopper, until, finally… 

He broke out into a peal of laughter. “HAHAHHAAHAHH, oh, Chopper, never change! Don’t you worry about me, no poison will ever be the death of me! Especially not this weak stuff from some Paradise chum!”

That was… well, to Chopper, hearing that was both relaxing and worrying. He’d rather his new captain didn’t die, even if it was a future version of him, but knowing that King considered a small island of a sea-king to be mere chum… A bit concerning, to say the least. Then again, with that display of power, thinking King was anyone weak would be moronic. 

“Well, um, alright, but we still don’t have any food,” Chopper said timidly. 

King hit his fist on his open palm. “Ah, right. True. Hmmmm…” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, until, finally, an idea struck him. “Oh! Shoot, I didn’t even think about using that! Give me a moment.” King stared out at sea, and closed his eyes. Nobody but him understood what he was doing, what he was seeing. 

Beneath the Merry, thousands of fish and sea-kings swarmed, locked in a deadly battle for survival that King wasn’t a part of. If he were, it would hardly be a battle at all. 

In this moment, he would enter that battle as the overwhelming force he was.

He opened his eyes, grinned, and used his authority as King. 

A pulse of concentrated will forced its way through the world, overpowering those of the meagre sea life and fully ignoring the people on deck. For all they knew, he hadn’t done anything, not a-,

Zoro unsheathed wado. “The hell did you just do, bastard?” 

King turned to Zoro. “You felt that? Impressive!” And in the next moment, a thousand fishes and sea-kings in a hundred-meter radius around the Merry surfaced. Silence fell on the deck like a wet blanket. King smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I didn’t really know which ones were poisonous and not, so I just took them all. That’s fine, right?”

A moment passed. 

“Y’see, King,” Usopp threw an arm around King’s shoulders (as best he could, the man was quite tall), “this isn’t a question of whether or not it was okay for you to fish a couple hundred fishes. This is about how you did it.”

“How?...” King mumbled, furrowing his brows. “-Oh, you mean the, uhhh, what’sthename… Colour of the Supreme King?”

“The fucking what?” Usopp deadpanned. 

King made a few odd movements in the air. “Like, you know. That thing? The thing that makes people go unconscious and stuff? That thingy thing?” Usopp did not answer. “I’m, uh… I never knew how to explain it well myself, so I’m just not gonna explain it! Think of it as a, let’s see… A mystery power! That’s it!”

A mystery power. Honestly, Usopp couldn’t bother to argue it. “Yeah, sure, oka-,”

“Is it possible to learn this power?” Zoro asked, a power-hungry grin already plastered across his face. 

King squinted. “First of all, no, second of all, yes.”

“That makes no sense,” Usopp said.

King simply shrugged. “I’m not explaining it.”

“Fine,” Sanji said, butting in on the conversation before it got any more out of hand. “But what do we do about the fish?”

King shrugged. “We fish it up?” And somehow, nobody could disagree with this. They needed food, and now they had food. Almost too much food, really. Fishing up all the edible fish took the better part of two hours, but once it was all done and over with, Sanji spared no time to get cooking. Sashimi, fish stew, poached fish, fish kebab… Just a whole lot of fish.

Nobody minded. With a cook as excellent as Sanji, there was no one in the cramped little kitchen who could possibly complain. 

“Hey, King, aren’t you going to eat?” Usopp asked jovially, slapping King on the back with little restraint. “If Sanji catches you skipping out, he’ll flay you alive!”

King stared down at the plate of food before him. It was filled to the brim with all sorts of seafood, sea-kings and prawn and molluscs and anything they could fish out of the sea. Butter and garlic and spices King couldn’t identify in a million years had all been brought together in a way that set his taste-buds alight.

Sanji’s food. Sanji’s cooking.

In all of King’s years, he’d never had better food than what Sanji made him. And he’d been to every single island there was! He’d been to All Blue, he’d tasted every delicious fish the world had to offer, forced every cook he could find to fruitlessly attempt to replicate Sanji’s style, and… And nothing. Not a single dish anybody prepared could ever live up to the real deal. Even when cooking after the many recipes Sanji wrote down, nobody could ever get it well and truly right.

Within a few years of his search, cooks around the four blues started realizing a worrying pattern. Whenever the Pirate King appeared and wanted you to make him food, real, actual fancy food, destruction would surely follow. Usually, King couldn’t help himself. Sometimes the smell of the food set off a nostalgic memory, painted in colours of joy or sadness, and when the food itself failed to bring that memory to light, he’d go berserk. 

After some time, cooks started simply denying the King’s request for a special meal. Some daring cooks still took on the challenge, but they grew to regret it, too. 

In the end though, the one hurt most by this quest was none other than King himself. 

He’d given up so long ago.

But now… now, he had it.

Before him was a plate of that long-desired food, and the scent wafting off of it all set King’s heart on fire. This was it. This was the smell. Memories flashed through his head, of islands made of candy and innumerable banquets after big victories and little small meals every day that he never thought he’d remember. Never thought he’d miss so direly. And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to taste even a shrimp. Couldn’t bring himself that closure. 

Eighteen years of starvation. Eighteen years of lacking the one food that truly made him happy.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll be happy to oblige~” a certain young captain chimed, a rubbery limb shooting out at the plate of food quicker than most could see. 

King grabbed the limb. His fingers clutched like vices around the thin wrist. Luffy froze. “Don’t you dare touch my food.”

He shot a dark glare at Luffy, who tried to jerk his arm out of King’s, but he wouldn’t let him. Admittedly, King did unconsciously use some armament haki to keep the fruit-user in place, but even without it, he didn’t need much strength to subdue the thief. The table quieted as all eyes were drawn to the scene. “Let me go.”

King glared at him for a moment longer before releasing him. The rubbery appendage snapped into place, and King turned back to his food.

Silence reigned. 

Slowly, with the most intentful of movements, he brought a forkful of food to his mouth. Chewed. Swallowed. And wept. 

It was Sanji’s, alright. Sure, it lacked a few of the more subtle nuances that he would learn after the war, but that was okay. That was alright. It was still Sanji’s. It was right. It was good. It was the best food he’d ever eaten. Heavy tears fell from his dark eyes as he slowly shovelled more food into his mouth. More and more, until the plate was finally empty. 

He held it out to the stunned-silent Sanji. “More, please.”

The cook nodded, and abided. 

“K-, King, are you alright?” Nami asked, shooting him a sympathetic glance.

“Yes,” he said honestly. “I’ve never been better. Haven’t had Sanji’s food in so long. Thank you, Sanji, thank you for existing. For being my nakama.”

Maybe Sanji himself didn’t understand the context for that last part, maybe he didn’t know of the events to come, but even then, there was something so broken, so shattered in what he said, that it stirred something within him still. Sanji smiled softly. “Yeah, anytime.”

After this incident, the party actually got started. Someone brought out the booze, and unlike Luffy, King was actually somewhat of a heavy drinker, although it didn’t seem to have any effect on him as far as they could see. Tolerance built over years of heavy drinking. A depressing thought, but that was all over now. Now, they could party!

Music, dancing! Happy chatterings about this and that! It was a joyous occasion, even though King kept rather quiet. 

He sang with Chopper and he danced with Usopp, but he didn’t say much. Questions were flung his way, about the future and the world and everything in-between, but he didn’t answer. He simply sipped his booze and smiled knowingly. Evening turned to night, and people who hadn’t drunk a drop laid in clusters, passed out beyond repair. 

Not that the ones who had drunk were in any better shape. If anything, they were even worse off. 

All except for one.


	5. Sit down, I'll tell you a story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit short, yes, but I'll get another chapter out tonight, just you see!

The sky was clear and empty and filled to the brim with glittering stars. Jewels twinkling and winking and dancing together to a three-fourths beat. And in the middle of that irrediscient waltz, the moon stood proud and bold, radiating the most heavenly glow upon the world. 

A sight to prove the heavens right. 

Chopper stared up at that great darkness and that great light, as he had done so many nights in his life, and let his situation sink in. Aboard that little caravan that he now called home, snores rose in a soft chorus. It was so loud and so quiet. Soft and strong, and home. 

He couldn’t sleep. And was that so wrong? He was in a new place, living a new life. With a new family. 

There was a nervous surr in his stomach, a buzz of subdued excitement. At the things to come, at the things that had already come. The things that defied all laws, disregarded the rules and told him nothing was true. He had no choice but to accept it. It was true, and he knew it. Despite how terribly the older man smelled, the essence remained true. Something in his scent was the very same as that of his new captain. 

Letting his eyes fall on the people on deck, all passed out and snoring, he slowly came to realize that King was not among them. A sniff in the air informed him of where he might be. 

Chopper headed towards the figurehead of the Merry. 

“-And then, we went to this island far below the sea! It was really hard to get down there, but it was super pretty and filled with mermaids and fishmen and all sorts of cool things!” A little giggle chimed, like a child laughing at the antics of their father. “It’s true! And-, and then we went to this island where half was cold, and half was hot! I thought I’d freeze to death! We met these weird centaurs, and we saved a bunch of kids!”

Unsurely, Chopper peeked his head around a wooden corner, gazing at King where he sat on the figurehead, talking to… Someone. Something. It looked like a small child, wearing a little raincoat, but beyond that, Chopper couldn’t tell anything about it. It didn’t smell like anything.

No… that wasn’t quite true. 

A few days ago, when Chopper boarded the Merry for the first time, he was given a very strong impression of what it smelled like. There were the obvious smells like booze and spices, but there was something more to it than that. Luffy smelled like rubber and seawater. Zoro smelled like iron and soft wood. Nami smelled like old paper and ink. Usopp smelled like oil and nails. Sanji smelled like food and shoe polish. Vivi and Karue smelled like sand. 

These smells, these smells of so many people had all coalesced on board Merry’s deck, wafting together and forming a tangible mist, a perfume of all these people. 

A soul representing the deep, welded bond between the straw-hats. 

That was how the child smelled. 

Chopper had almost failed to notice it. 

“-And after that, we went to this really cool city called Dressrosa and dethroned the king!” The child made an odd, whining sound. “Huh? No, no, he was a bad king! Very bad! He hurt Tarao-guy!” King seemed to calm himself down a little. “Didja know that there’s this big elephant in the New World? It’s called Zou! A bunch of these furry people live on his ba-,”

A floorboard creaked beneath Chopper’s hooves. King’s head whipped around and Chopper threw himself behind cover, his hooves shooting up to cover his mouth. 

A moment passed. “-Chopper, it’s alright, you can come out.”

Hesitantly, Chopper stepped out from behind his makeshift cover, eyes downcast. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-,” Chopper glanced up, and noticed that King was smiling. Warmly, fondly, it was the most sentimental smile Chopper had ever seen. Directed at him. It was… heartwarming. So heartwarming he almost missed how the child had disappeared. Almost. “H-, huh? Where did-,”

“Ah, don’t worry about her,” King said, turning his warm eyes to the figurehead he sat upon. He gave it a soft pat. “She’s still with us.”

“Wh-, who is?” Chopper nervously asked, poking his hooves together. 

King looked at him, and smiled. He swivelled around where he sat atop the figurehead, turning to face the sea. For a moment, Chopper thought he was being ignored. Until King scootched over a little, and patted the empty area on his right. “Oh!” Chopper caught on quick and hopped over to the figurehead. He’d never been allowed to sit on it himself. After all, it was the captain’s esteemed special seat!

And now, he was invited to share it.

Getting on top of it was harder than he’d thought, but once he did, he realized why Luffy liked it so much. 

The deep cerulean sea, glimmering with reflected stars stretched out endlessly on all sides. Not an island to be seen, not a boat to be seen, nothing. There was only the sea, and them. And it was beautiful.

“Whoa…” Chopper gasped, eyes glittering. 

King grinned proudly. “Isn’t it?”

It was. It truly was. And he’d missed it, too. The Sunny, although he had loved her as much as the Merry, simply wasn’t the same. Sitting atop the Sunny’s figurehead had been like sitting on a mere extension of the ship itself. Sitting on Merry’s sheep’s head was like being entirely disconnected from the world of man, left to the devices of the sea. 

True freedom. Him and the sea. In a way his devil fruit could never truly allow him to. 

“That child,” he said with a fond sigh, “was Merry herself.”

Chopped glanced down at the Going Merry, at the figurehead he sat upon. “-The Going Merry?”

King nodded, and turned to Chopper, giving him a knowing look. “Have you heard of the Klabautermann?” He grinned at Chopper’s reaction. “Going by that look, I’d say you haven’t.” He leaned back, letting his upper body fall as he laid himself onto the figurehead, facing the stars. Chopper hesitantly followed, lying down as well. 

“When a ship is deeply beloved, it develops a soul.” King gave a chuckle as Chopper gasped softly. “I was talking to Merry. There’s so much she never got to see. So much she needed to know.” 

“Like what?” Chopper asked, shooting King a curious glance. 

King grinned mischievously. “Nihihi, not telling!” Guess a clear answer was too much to ask for. “Suffice it to say,” he said, glancing back at Chopper. “You’re in for an adventure, Chopper.”

He didn’t doubt that. Not when a future version of his captain had appeared a mere three days after he joined. Then again, going by how high the moon stood, it should be four days by now. Lord only knew how far they’d gotten, how far away Alabasta was.

While Chopper thought of such things, King raised his hand and trailed a finger through the stars, mapping constellations. “-And the rubbery captain hit the crocodile, sending him flying aaaaall the way…” his finger touched a brightly shining purple star. “-To Impel Down.” Chopper made a questioning noise. “Hm? Oh, I… Going by the stars, I’d say we’re about a day or so away from Alabasta.” He chuckled. “Assuming we stay on course, that is.”

“You can tell that from the stars?” Chopper asked, to which King nodded. “Gee, the Doctorine could also do that, she said it took years of sailing to learn, though. Or hard studying!”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that. I only know it by making up stories though, so it isn’t much impressive.”

Chopper stared up at the stars, irregular and disconnected. “What kind of stories?”

King smiled. “Close your eyes, I’ll tell you.” Chopper silently complied, letting the glimmering sky be replaced by complete darkness, a blank canvas. “Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived with mountain bandits…” King proceeded to tell a story of hardship and triumph and bitter, bitter loss. It came from the heart, Chopper could tell. Characters and people King clearly knew personally, clearly missed dearly appeared before Chopper’s closed eyes like brightly glimmering spectres and phantoms. 

He fell asleep before it finished. King continued recounting for a while more, but once he noticed Chopper’s soft snoring, he stopped, and smiled. He leaned back, put his straw-hat over his eyes, and fell asleep. No dream could possibly rival the joy he felt in that moment.

That night, Merry rocked softer than she usually did, for she cradled someone who truly needed a good night’s rest.


	6. A beautiful morning and an old friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm using this fic to procrastinate on writing the Impel Down-Marineford parts for my Busopp(BuggyxUsopp) fic. Seriously, I wanna write super-serious stuff like that, but it's not like I've got any choice
> 
> And, uh, comment!

Morning aboard the Merry was always an interesting time. 

Everyone woke up at different times for different reasons. Sanji was usually one of the first people awake. One might assume that this was in order to prepare breakfast for the whole crew, after all, that’s why he said he did it, but the true reason was of a more contemplative sort. 

He liked having a smoke in the early morning. Simple as that. Watching the sun rise upon the seas, those seas he’d been born and moulded by, it was a special occasion. 

Cool, clear air would tumble down his throat and into his lungs, replacing the aromatic billow of his cigarette. Sitting atop the roof of the kitchen, he let his eyes fall on the quaint scene taking place on the figure-head. He had no clue whatsoever in regards to how it came to be that King and Chopper slept side by side, arms slung haphazardly around each other, but it was still not a terrible sight to see. Just the opposite, in fact.

An interesting fella, that King guy. He could go from tense and intimidating to relaxed and jovial in a matter of seconds. There was no doubt that he was an older Luffy, but the future he alluded to… it wasn’t one Sanji would like to see.

Beneath where he sat, on deck, Zoro slowly stirred awake. Unlike Usopp and Luffy, he’d succeeded in falling asleep on his own terms in his own place. In other words, he hadn’t gone to sleep in a pile of people. Hence, he didn’t awaken anyone, which was good, since Sanji would’ve killed him if he woke Nami earlier than she’d liked. That wide grin on her face, mumbling about beris… No way he could let Zoro rob her of her dreams. 

Oh well. With Zoro awake, Sanji’s first mission for the day dawned. 

He hopped down from where he sat and headed inside the kitchen, Zoro following closely behind. In relaxed silence, Sanji prepared a light but fibre and protein-rich snack for a certain swordsman. Zoro accepted it with an appreciative nod and left Sanji, presumably to go train. How he could bother at this damn hour, Sanji did not know. 

With Zoro awake, it was due time to get working on breakfast. He could swear Luffy has a sixth sense of when people were starting to wake up.

And, about an hour later, at 8:00 precisely, Luffy burst through the kitchen door, shouting for a breakfast that Sanji had already prepared. Usopp, Vivi, Karue and Nami all trailed after him, eyes tired and, in a few cases, hung-over. Especially Nami. Her hair was a mess, and Sanji could already tell that the slightest annoyance would send her spitting fire. Still, two people were missing, apart from Zoro, that is. “Usopp, will you go get Chopper and King?”

Usopp froze where he stood, ready to shovel waffles into his face. “M-, me?!” Sanji nodded sharply. “B-, but!”

“No butts, they’re out on the figurehead.”

Usopp growled something about it not being fair and left the kitchen. 

After all, it wasn’t fair! He didn’t mind getting Chopper or anything, but King?... King was spooky! Spooky and way too strong to not be evil somehow! Geesh, a man coming from the future… If he was that strong, Usopp could only imagine what kind of monsters the rest of the crew would become. Erm, before they went to Raftel, that is. 

Somehow, Usopp couldn’t imagine himself standing beside King as an equal of any sort. He was just a little village boy, barely strong enough to rival even the newest recruit here. Or Karue. That duck was equally strong as Usopp, no doubt. 

Shivering, Usopp turned the corner and approached the figurehead. Man, Chopper sure was brave. Never in a million years would Usopp dare to lie that close to King!

...Dancing with him yesterday had been an exception. 

See, that’s the thing. King was a nice guy and all, but also terrifying, and Usopp could never smell the winds turning! It just happened, and he was left reeling and wondering if there was anything he could do, which there usually wasn’t. 

Gulping, Usopp stepped closer. In his mind, the memory of Nami waking King up flashed like an unwanted flashbang. He’d grabbed her, and she couldn’t get loose. 

“Um, King? Wakey wakey?” No response. “E-, Eggs and bakey?...”

Chopper rolled over, hazy eyes flickering open. “Nnnn, Usopp?...” And then, he proceeded to slip on the hard wooden figurehead. “-Hm-!?” His hooves fumbled for a grip, and at finding none, he started skidding over the side of it, sliding towards the abyssal sea below. “U-, Usopp!”

Chopper fell off. 

“Chopper!” Usopp cried, instantly throwing himself over the railing to catch his nakama, which he also did! But they were still about to hit the water. Still about to-,

Something grabbed a hold of the suspenders holding his overalls in place. For a moment, he simply hung over the waters, clutching his reindeer friend as close as he could. He glanced up. A rubber hand held a strong hold of his trousers, and on the other end of that arm, he found King, keeping a strong grip on Merry’s figurehead. “Th-, thank you-,” Usopp wanted to say more, but something interrupted him. 

The arm holding him started trembling ever so slightly. King’s eyes darkened. “That was close.”

“Heh, yeah, uh, guess so-,” Usopp replied as King started pulling them up. Once they were back up on deck, Chopper tumbled out of Usopp’s arms, collapsing onto the deck.

“Th-, that was scary!” he said, wiping at his forehead. “Thanks for saving us, King!”

King didn’t answer, simply walking off, fists clenched tightly at his sides. 

Usopp and Chopper shared a glance. “Hey, King, wait up!”

He didn’t, but going by where he was headed, he didn’t need to be told where to go either. Well inside the combined kitchen and dining room, most everyone had gotten started on eating, either by grabbing some of the food Sanji had made or, in Luffy’s case, simply grabbing it off of other people’s plates. (Were Luffy in the modern world, he would be the kind of person who stole groceries out of other people’s carts.)

King was a different breed in that way. Politely, as politely as Sanji had never seen Luffy act, he took food, sat down, and started eating. Slowly. Methodically. Savouring every bite as if it was his last. 

It was… silent praise. That was how Sanji took it, at least. 

And, as what Sanji could only consider to be a direct consequence of what happened last night at dinner, Luffy didn’t try to steal food from King even once. Everyone else was fair game as usual, but King was off-limits. 

It was an interesting sight, but apart from that, not much else actually happened at breakfast, and it ended without fight or flight. 

The day seemed to almost be going as normal, if it weren’t for…

“Whoa, what’s that??” Luffy asked, pointing at a billowing steamy mist just a few acres down. The steam seemed to be rising from the water itself, which was rather odd, hence why both Luffy and Usopp were reacting to it. Nami took a quick glance at the phenomenon. 

“Ah, don’t worry about that. It’s a hotspot,” Nami explained. After receiving a couple of quizzical glances (including one from King, who should know about this stuff by now), she elaborated. “It’s caused by the heat from an underwater volcano bringing the sea to a boil.”

“”Ohhhhhh,”” Usopp and Luffy replied. Very interesting. Only one thing to do. “Steer us towards it!” 

After a short chorus of “aye aye, captain!” Zoro and Chopper ran off to lead the Merry in the right direction. King watched on, pretty sure he’d seen this before but not entirely sure what he should do about it. Something was happening, and he could probably stop it, but… Something told him there was adventure to be had here.

Something that might surprise him could just happen.

And, to be sure, when they entered the boiling hotspot, King did notice something surprising. Something very surprising. 

He felt a presence. Sure, Luffy had felt many presences in his days, and he knew most of them by heart. Gramps, Shanks, Coby… He knew the sound of their Voice. If left in the dark, he could tell them apart from a crowd easily. Using observation haki had become an unconscious habit by now. 

So why was it that he recognized this voice? Well, not quite recognized, more like…

It was familiar. But he couldn’t place how. 

He just knew it was someone he had to meet. Someone he couldn’t bear not meeting. 

As the steam grew thicker and more inpenerable to the eye, his knowledge of where that person was only grew stronger. He was surrounded by other voices, but compared to them, he was by far stronger. More vibrant in both personality and strength. While his crew laughed about the situation and ooed about how cool it was, King walked over to the railing. 

He turned his face to where he felt the voices. They came closer, closer… Soon, they’d be in the perfect place.

Soon… Soon……

-Now!

King threw his open fist at the special voice, felt it whiz through the scalding steam, and finally… He grabbed a hold of something. No, someone. He clasped it, and drew his arm back, feeling how the person was lifted off of their feet and slingshotted through the air. 

As they emerged from the hotspot, so did the person, flying through the air, King’s rubbery fingers grabbing his head, and, in the end…

King held the person by the head in front of his face. Tall as he was, the person couldn’t even touch the floor. 

Activity on deck halted as people noticed King’s catch. 

“S-, stop joking around! The hell-,”

King recognized the man immediately. “-BON-CHAN!!” In a mere instant, King’s whole disposition did a 180, going from cautiously curious to fully overjoyed, cheeks lighting up in a blush and a smile. The man in question, Bon Clay, could do nothing but stare flabbergasted as the man who literally grabbed him by the head promptly released him, and drew him into a far-too-strong hug. “I’ve missed you!! You silly swan, I thought you’d died, I really-,”

And at that point, King remembered that Bon Clay hadn’t been resurrected, but that he’d gone back in time. And Bon Clay seemed more confused than anything. “What’s the matter, buster? Never seen a face this pretty??” Bon Clay asked, putting on a cheeky grin despite the situation, fearlessly hugging his captor right back. 

Maybe he should have been a little scared. After all, he’d just been separated from his crew by someone he could already tell was monstrously powerful, but still, he didn’t mind. This guy, whoever he was, seemed alright. 

“Wait, how’d’ya know my name?...” Bon Clay asked, dislodging himself from King. 

King paused for a moment before answering. A sly look flashed through his eyes. “I’m you! From the future!” 

Bon Clay froze, mouth agape. “Stop joking around! Is that true?!” He turned to the other people on deck, who all shook their heads in denial. It was both true and false, but they’d rather this strange okama didn’t know anything. “What! Why, you’re pulling my leg! Who are you, really?”

King grinned and let his old friend down. “Alright. I’ll tell the truth.” He smiled as all parties involved, including the people who had no idea who this guy was, perked their ears in attention. “You don’t know me, at least, not yet.” He jerked a thumb at Luffy. “That’s me from the past.”

Luffy stepped in, pointing a big finger at King. “And that’s me from the future!”

They hooked a shoulder around each other, both grinning the very same ear-to-ear grin. “”Ain’t we a pair??””

Touched beyond measure, Bon Clay clapped his hands together, giving the pair a standing ovation. “Magnifico, fantastique! What a darling pair you are!” The two versions of Luffy bowed deeply and Bon Clay wiped at his face. Then, he remembered something. “Wait, how do I know you? In the future, that is!”

King opened his mouth to speak before abruptly snapping it shut. “I-, erm… Bon-chan. Listen.”

“Hm?”

Memories flashed through King’s mind. They were old, worn, tainted with nostalgia, and still so clear. “You’ve gotta change sides.” Bon Clay furrowed his brows. “If you don’t relinquish your title as Mr 2,” he said sharply. Vivi gasped at the title. “-I’ll have no choice but to remove you from the game entirely.” 

Now, King would never in a million years do something as hasty as kill Bon-chan, that was entirely out of the question, but he had to make him understand that the path he was on at the moment would only lead to his own destruction. 

Bon Clay’s eyes darkened and he slowly got into a fighting stance. “Is that a threat, future-Luffy?”

“It wasn’t,” King said. “But it will be if you make it.”

Bon Clay shook his head. “I don’t want to fight you without knowing why. Tell me how we know each other.”

Crossing his arms, King prepared himself to retell the story. “-We were friends from the start. Then, since you were Mr 2, we had to fight. Even then, we weren’t true enemies. We met again in Impel Down, where-,” he glanced away, eyes distance. “-Where you sacrificed yourself for me.” King looked back at Bon Clay, letting his eyes bore their way into his. “Even now, I would do the same for you. But only if you let me.”

Bon Clay slowly released his stance. “If-,” he said, weakly. “If I get captured, would you rescue me?”

“Yes.” No hesitation. 

Bon Clay simply smiled. “We’ll see, Luffy. Return me to my ship, and I’ll make my decision, okay?”

King nodded. He didn’t even let anyone else get a word in before he wordlessly grabbed a hold of Bon Clay, took him in a princess-carry, and proceeded to sky-walk away from the ship. Finding Bon Clay’s ship was surprisingly easy as it had also emerged from the billowing vapour.

Bon Clay’s men could only watch on, stunned, as King descended from the sky, carrying their captain in a princess-carry like some sort of deity. Or Messiah. They could almost see a radiant gloria of light surrounding him.

Either way, he let Bon Clay down, and waved goodbye as he left. 

Stepping back down on Merry’s deck he was met by the angry glare of Nami. “Ah, oop-,”

“Who. The. Hell. Was. That?” Nami asked politely, a strained smile reminding King of why he used to somewhat fear the orange-haired navigator. 

“I, um. An old friend.”

Vivi frowned at him. “You-, you said his title was Mr 2. Right? You did say that, I’m not just-,” King nodded sharply. “Okay, great, because if that was Mr 2, I’d like to ask two things. Why did you let him go, and what will you do if he comes after us?”

King crossed his arms. “He is an old friend.”

“You didn’t answer the last question.”

King turned away, arms tense and eyes grim. “I’ll handle it. Whatever enemy comes after us…” He turned back to the crew, his eyes sharp and serious. “I’ll handle it.”

Nobody could object to it. 

Two hours later and they sighted Alabasta on the horizon.


End file.
